Misfire and Catalytic Converter Damage

I have a 1986 Camaro IROC with 5.0 liter tuned port injection V8 engine.
Recently I drove the car about 4 miles or less after not driving the car for
several months. There was a great deal of misfiring apparently from clogged

fuel injectors. The Service Engine Soon light came on briefly. After adding
2 bottles each of 2 different kinds of fuel injector cleaner and driving
about 2 miles the problem was solved. I am concerned, however, that the
catalytic converter may have melted or have its efficiency reduced.
Unfortunately, I do not have any baseline data from an emissions analyzer. I
want to have a free flowing exhaust system and also an effective emission
control system. Any thoughts on this would be appreciated.

Blaine,
You'll just have to wait until you get your car inspected and see if it
passes. If it doesn't then you should get the car properly diagnosed and
then fix it then. There's no need to worry about a mis-functioning
catalytic converter unless you have a better reason to worry. If you're
worried about needless emissions, then you shouldn't be driving an F-body
with a 305 in it.
BTW, I live in Dallas. If you've ever seen a red Firebird with a primered
hood, that's me.

Gee, Brucie Chang's judgemental advice is quite
condescending.........and, by pure luck, correct. Only pinheads worry
if their catalytic converters are "working".
If you want to test for any backpressure from your "bad" converter, just
get a cheapie combo guage (fuel pressure/vacuum) and shove it into the
smog pump hookup on the exhaust manifold. If it reads more than +5 psi
you've got an exhaust restriction, but I doubt it will.
Or you can go buy a new converter, have it installed, and then all
you'll need to worry about is how to pay for it, pinhead.
And, by the way, I live in Detroit and sometimes L.A. If you see a
light-blue, clapped-out and dented '70 Nova with Michigan plates, that's
me. But the 350 motor and Turbo 350 slushbox run freakin' strong,
stronger than my B.O. and my bitch's cuny stank combined.
Happy motoring. See you in Beverly Hills.

I wouldn't imagine a trip of that length would cause major converter damage
even if it was misfiring significantly, unless you were running heavy
throttle enough to heat it up every quickly.
However, unless this car has low miles, I wouldn't guess that the catalyst
on a 1986 vehicle with V8 engine is likely in that great shape to begin
with..

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